New classes? Maybe or maybe not.

[KillaBlade]

Nearly two years into its release and swtor is doing well I think, it could worse or could do better but a fact that I think the developers are going to be facing at some point is when and if to release new classes.

 

One thing I tend to notice when new classes are talked about is that most people want an empire trooper and a republic agent. In terms of lore there is actually a lot of good stories that could told from classes like these. For republic agents it could be a way to show a darker side of the republic not just in the npcs but in the players. Meanwhile for empire troopers it would be interesting how imperial troopers are treated in the empire. Also the player could be a deflected republic trooper, another interesting story idea.

 

However for the story reasons to do these classes there is a major gameplay flaw. these classes would at worst be carbon copies and at best slightly different versions of current classes. A empire trooper would be a copy of the bounty hunter and republic trooper. Meanwhile a republic agent would be a copy of the smuggler and imperial agent.

 

and the player base would be divided some wanting to play as a republic trooper on the empire and others seeing it as being a copy. But if they make the classes varied and different compared to what it currently here other will be annoyed. Its a lose lose situation.

 

But to the question what do you think would happen if there were to introduce new classes into the game, either based on these ideas or your own.

 

For glory!

[eartharioch]

Make a 3rd (independent) Faction

 

Move BH and Smuggler to this faction. Stories & ability trees remain the same.

 

Rep Agent gets SIS/Dead Eyes ACs, mirror abilities with new name/flavor as IA/Smuggler, and a new Rep-based story.

 

Imp Trooper gets two ACs that mirror Rep Trooper / BH abilities and a new Imp-based story.

 

* Add new "Fleet" type location to Nar Shadda (Smuggler's Moon) for BH and Smugglers, BH and Smugglers don't get regular access to Imp/Rep Fleets, but everybody can still access NS GTN.

 

Plenty more ideas, but those popped off the top of my head.

 

OFC, things could be much more entertaining on a [OW]PvP server.

[SuperGrunt]

I have heard rumors that Trooper was more in line with Sniper early on in game play and that Bounty Hunter and Smuggler where originally intended to be faction neutral at the start and that you picked your faction when you got to level 10 with both starting out on Hutta. This would have made more sense to me from a story point of view, and you could have had a much better option then for adding more classes, either faction neutral ones or factional ones.

[JKRevan]

Instead of a New class (which would be a huge load considering the stories and such)

 

i hope several classes get a third AC.... maybe a STR double bladed lightsaber user, ou a Melee Tech User (branches off BH/Trooper), so many options that game left off strangely, maybe..

 

A new class i'd like to see undoubedly is a Droid class for each faction...

[VonFoxFire]

New classes would be way to expensive you'd have to get back all the old voice actors to redo basically every quest in the game.

Only way I could see it being done is if they added new advanced classes you pick up at a high level. Like say when a sorcerer hits level 56 he can choose a new class like beast handler with a new story line and possibly new companions. Otherwise the character lines would all have to be reworked which would take a lifetime to actually complete.

[Suromir]

yah best we can hope for is new AC's...NOT classes...they're not going to make new class stories 1-50 for entirely new classes...not without the game doing a major upswing and getting tons of subs somehow...and even then it'll probably just be better quality CM stuff.

 

Still I'd love to see more AC's..they can be done w/o any extra story content.

 

a Consular AC that uses single-blade lightsaber in melee (can still be WILL based like an assassin/shadow)

 

a Trooper AC that uses a blaster rifle or even sniper rifle..but is purely DPS..I love the commando gameplay style but hate Autocannons.

 

a Bounty Hunter AC that uses Melee and one that uses A rifle.

 

an Agent that uses a blaster pistol or dual pistols.

 

etc...switch it up..give us more options with AC's that use different weapon types and variations.

 

But, again, new classes altogether? not going to happen.

[Alzor]

I don't often say never, but this game will never have new classes. SWTOR was the most expensive video game ever produced, mainly due to all the voice acting. I'm not sure if Bioware, and by proxy EA, has even seen good returns on this game, or if they're still trying to make back the enormous amount of money they spent. Although I have heard that the Cartel Market was performing better than they could have anticipated, at least it was initially.

 

If this game had just had written dialogue, like most MMO's, with no voice acting from the players just like KOTOR (NPC voice acting alone would have been perfect), then I would say the odds of them adding in new classes would have been extremely high, if not a certainty. It would have been a matter of changing the written dialogue a little, and adding in a few animations.

 

However, I believe Bioware will never receive the financial backing to expand further new classes. The cost is just too high for the return. Maybe new advanced classes, but never new base classes.

 

TLDR: There will never be more classes, its too expensive.

Edited October 26, 2013 by Alzor